Colloquium Detail

Formation of Planets Around the Sun and Other Stars.

Date:
11/14/2005

Professor Doug Lin
UC Santa CruzFormation of Planets around the Sun and other stars.
The quest to understand the formation of planets and planetary systems
has entered an era of renaissance. Driven by observational
discoveries in solar system exploration, protostellar disks, and extra
solar planets, we have established a rich data bank which contains not
only relic clues around mature stars, including the Sun, but also
direct image of ongoing processes around young stars. For the first
time in this scientific endeavor, we have adequate information to
construct quantitative models to account for the ubiquity of planets
and diversity of planetary systems. Some of the most intriguing
theoretical questions facing us today include: a) how did the planets
in the solar system form with their present-day mass, composition, and
orbital elements, b) is planet formation a deterministic or chaotic
process, and c) what are the observable signatures of planet formation
and evolution around nearby young and mature stars? I will present a
comprehensive scenario which suggests a) gas giant planets formed
through coagulation of planetsimals and gas accretion onto earth-like
cores; b) the final assemblage of the terrestrial planets in the solar
system occurred through the propagation of Jupiter's secular resonance
4-30 Myrs after the emergence of the gas giant; and c) although they
are yet to be discovered, Earth-like planets are expected to be common
around nearby stars.